Category Archives: Toronto Maple Leafs

Management has all but settled on dealing the erratic 23-year-old defenseman, who will play in his ninth straight game on Friday since sitting out the Dec. 7 match against the Devils in which Marc Staal was concussed.

A great skater who put up 30 points in his rookie season, 23-year-old defenseman Jake Gardiner is a tantalizing talent. And according to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Toronto Maple Leafs are likely to trade him.

“I think there’s a better chance of him getting traded, just because of the continued interest,” Dreger said this morning on TSN 1050 radio (audio). “At some point, I think that Toronto’s needs are going to equal what teams are going to be willing to pay.

Following back-to-back bad games resulting in a benching against the Panthers, Jake Gardiner’s availability has once again become topical. Nonis insists he’s not shopping Gardiner, but rival management sources say Gardiner’s name has been brought up by Toronto in trade discussions in Nonis’s search for a top-six forward.

Leafs GM Dave Nonis addressed the future of his struggling club on Wednesday, making it clear he wasn’t going to make a change just for the sake of making a change.

“It’s not happening,” Nonis told the Toronto Sun about firing head coach Randy Carlyle, or shaking things up via trade. “We’re not making a move [player or coach] for the sake of making a move. We’re not trading a young player away that will erode our depth or take youth out of our lineup. We don’t do that.”

It is no secret that David Clarkson was one of the players rookie Edmonton Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish went after hard this summer.

When Clarkson signed with Toronto, MacTavish expressed his regret and said that he “thought this guy was an Oiler.” Shortly thereafter, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reported that Clarkson had left money on the table when he signed his seven-year pact worth $36.75 million. LeBrun didn’t report it as fact, but said he suspected the team to make Clarkson an even more lucrative offer was Edmonton.

One suspects that these days the Maple Leafs are wishing the Oilers had won that bidding